https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/05/09/minnesota-conservation-officer-lake-death-no-life-jacket


WS

sad but cannot for the life of me figure out why no pfd.

I know MN DNR requires their employees to wear PFDs and OSHA will probably issue citations. But as far as I know, MN law only requires PFDs be available in the boat. How many of us have been in a boat with our life jackets available, not worn. I think the only ones that can criticize are the ones who always wear one while in a boat. Any boat.

I do, but it is not my place to critique so I won’t.

Osky

That's sad. Praying for his friends and family

When I'm working in wear my required PPE. When I do the same kind of work at home I never wear a hard hat or safety vest. Comparing work to personal time to work is apples to oranges.

That said it's easy enough when in a hurry or an emergency to forget. I'll be interested to see if OSHA gives a citation, they would to a private industry.

That is a double tragedy, the family has suffered the loss of their loved one and since he was outside of policy and not wearing the required PPE the state will in all likelihood deny the line of duty death benefits what a shame.

Can't ever remember seeing a warden on the water without one. I have to wonder if the situation wasn't that where he didn't have time to toss it on, or his brain had bigger things to think about at the time.

I have a strong personal policy where I always wear a life jacket rat trapping now, but there have been times when I'm half way across the lake/marsh/river and I realize Its not on. Sometimes even with the best intentions things just get forgotten in the haste of other things that are going on around us.

Pretty easy to criticize what coulda, shoulda happened in an emergency situation once it is over.

Its just such a Shame all the way around!!! If only ....

He was in a life saving mode. He thought someone was in the water.

We all can do something a thousand times but sometimes when one thing changes the routine we forget some things. Not saying this happened as I don't know him or his history on wearing a life vest.

My question more would be on why the need to turn the boat so abruptly that both occupants fell out? Something must of caused him to do so.

Sad loss for the family.

From Whopper Stopper’s link:



Maybe he swerved to avoid a chunk of ice he didn’t see until the last second.

It's not criticizing, it's analyzing.

Whenever someone gets seriously hurt or worse yet killed it's a good practice to do a stand down and go over what happened and how to correct it. Emergency situations are some of the easiest times to make a mistake because of the urgency.

In the end we all are human and it's easy to make a mistake and tragedies like this are a stark reminder how easy it is to make one and the consequences of something so seemingly simple.